At first, I was nervous about a lot of things, including the people that would be traveling with us. One person can spoil it for the bunch. After bonding with the people that are traveling, I feel that we have become very close, which is important because they will act as our support system while we are abroad.
I believe that Miss T, Bro. B, and Sean chose the best students to attend the trip and I am looking forward to spending the next month with them all!
As the semester passed, more information about the trip was available to us, which made the "realness" of the situation even more intense. I don't think it has hit me yet that I will be in China in about 24 hours! Not to mention, we have already had a great experience here in the States.Yesterday, we met at Greater Allegheny to begin our journey. We packed our luggage in the van and drove for about 4 hours to Washington DC. Though it was a long drive, I knew the 15 hour flight from San Francisco to China would be even worse!
We stayed overnight in DC and flew to San Francisco this morning. The flight was long, but luckily the man that was originally sitting next to me switched to a different seat so that I could sit with Rachel, another student on the trip.Everyone seemed tired once we got to San Fran, especially because of the time difference; however, we sucked it up. After we caught a shuttle to our hotel, we changed clothes if need be and freshened up a little. Soon after, we ate in the Bayside Grill inside of the hotel.
The waitress did not know what tax-exemption was; Miss Tahirah's face was priceless!
From there, we began our hunt for the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. The wind was blowing so hard that it made it much colder than it actually would have been. We hiked for about 15 minutes and finally found the station (apparently, there's an app for that). We got on the train and rode about 8 stops to the Montgomery station, where the largest China Town in the world (outside of China of course) exists.
I bought a wrist-let so that I would not lose my money, hotel key, and debit card. I think everyone thought I was crazy because I bought something in China Town, when we will be in China tomorrow and everything is cheaper, but I did not want to risk losing my belongings between then and now.
We went in a few stores and even a cafe. Miss Tahirah, Rachel, and Kirsten tried on colorful wigs and surprisingly looked great in them! It was pretty hilarious. In the cafe they had something called milk juice that everyone was afraid to try. I got a Strawberry Snow, which is basically a smoothie. After I tasted Jordan's milkshake, I wished I had gotten that instead.
After that, we headed back to the hotel.
Oh! And we ended up paying $5.65 too much for the train! BUT, that's the least of our worries. =)
So... As of now, I am a little nervous about going to China, but excited as well. I am NOT looking forward to the 15 hour flight into Hong Kong, but it's not about the plane ride, it's about the journey ahead and the people we experience it with.
That's about it for now. Stayed tuned! Next stop: China!
